1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to brackets and piping manifolds for holding water filters, and more specifically, brackets and manifolds that allow quick change-out of the filters. The invention relates to a bracket system that may accommodate a plurality of filters in series and/or parallel flow, and is adaptable to many different flow schemes, media and liquids. The preferred system used a pivotal system, wherein a top bracket pivots away from each filter so that the filters may be lifted up out of the bracket system.
2. Related Art
Manifold systems have been developed to accommodate multiple filters or water treatment tanks for increasing filter capacity and for allowing quick replacement of the filters. In 1972, Warren disclosed (U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,539) a multi-station system comprising a plurality of filters attached to a vacuum manifold. In 1973, Bjork disclosed (U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,495) a water conditioning unit with a filtering tank and a water softening tank connected to a manifold. In 1992–1994, Posner et al. disclosed a manifold system that comprises horizontally-removable filters that include a “means for effective evenly distributed filtration,” which includes a first conical stage filter near the filter inlet and a second conical stage filter near the filter outlet, with a charcoal element between the conical filters. Each Posner filter is removable in a horizontal direction, that is, perpendicularly to the plane of the piping manifold, which plane is typically vertical. The Posner fittings are stationary snap-together and snap-apart connections that are parallel in fixed horizontal planes.
There is still need a filter and bracket system that provides reliable quick connection and disconnection between a plurality of filters and their respective brackets. There is still a need for such a modular system that allows filters to be arranged in many different flow configurations for many different processes. The present invention fulfills these and other needs.